George Whiteman Movies

Julie Andrews and Ann-Margaret combine their not inconsiderable talents for Our Sons. In her TV-movie debut, Ms. Andrews plays a San Diego businesswoman and self-styled liberal whose open-mindedness is put to the test when she discovers that her son (Hugh Grant) is homosexual. This brings Andrews in reluctant contact with Ann-Margaret, a brash Arkansas cocktail waitress whose own son (Zeijko Ivanek) is Andrews' son's lover. The occasion for the meeting between the two mothers is the revelation that Ann-Margaret's son has AIDS. Andrews and Ann-Margaret go through a lengthy period of self-denial and self-blame before coming to grips with the tragedy now facing them. William Hanley's screenplay for Our Sons was supposed to spotlight the mothers, but the strong rapport between the sons throws the emphasis off at times. The director was John Erman, whose previous successful collaborations with Ann-Margaret included Who Will Love My Children and A Streetcar Named Desire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A postal investigator swoops down on Hazzard County to find out who is running a phony property mail scams. Of course, Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) is the guilty party, but he manages to pin the blame on innocent postmistress Miz Tisdale (Nedra Volz). The old lady hides from the authorities at the Duke farm--making Jesse mighty nervous (Denver Pyle), knowing full well that the lovelorn Miz T. has set her cap for him, and won't take no for an answer! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First telecast May 16, 1977, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn is the gender-switch follow-up to the 1976 TV movie Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway. While Dawn concentrated on the sordid descent of a young girl into crime and prostitution, Alexander devotes its time to the exploits of a teenaged boy (Leigh J. McCloskey), whose character was introduced in the earlier film. A former Oklahoma farm boy, Alexander takes to the streets of LA, where he becomes a hustler and gigolo. After falling in love with Dawn (Eve Plumb), Alexander strives to escape his dead-end world and begin life anew. Director John Erman uses moody overtones to capture the darkness and despair of Alexander's life. Erman, an accomplished director of television movies, also directed the highly-acclaimed, touching AIDS drama, An Early Frost. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Famed producer Dino De Laurentiis tries to steal the thunder from Jaws, then the top-grossing film of all-time, in this big budget remake of King Kong. (De Laurentiis related his tactics to Tom Snyder: "When Jaws dies, nobody cries. When Kong dies, they all cry.") Updated to the 1970s, the original Robert Armstrong character is now Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin), a big-shot oil magnate from Petrox Oil, looking for new petroleum deposits on a recently discovered Pacific island. Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) is a counter-culture paleontologist, stowing away on Wilson's ship, who warns that they are headed for "Skull Island," where prehistoric monsters still live and roam free. Also along for the ride is Dwan (Jessica Lange, in her film debut), a down-on-her-luck starlet, shipwrecked in the ocean after the sinking of a yacht. She really becomes down-on-her-luck when the group lands on the island and a giant ape, Kong, takes a shine to her. Kong kidnaps her and Dwan takes umbrage when the ape tries to remove her clothes by shouting, "You male chauvinist ape!" But Prescott comes to her aid and rescues her from the gorilla's big mits. Wilson, seeing money to be made on Kong, locks him in the cargo hold of his ship and transports him to New York City. Once there, Kong manages to escape and wreak havoc upon the beleaguered town, before being compelled to climb up the World Trade Center for sanctuary. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide